I cannot stress this more, No.1 is the whitepaper. Always look at the whitepaper. If you can understand what the team wants to do, and like the concept, consider putting money - else no use. No2. is the team. Look at the engagement that they are having with the community, also look at how old are their public profile like linkedin. QUtm CEO changed his name recently before doing qtum, he has been known for doing frauds in past- so do look into the history of people involved. No3 thing that I check is the community around the project.
Basing on whitepaper isnt really reliable itself since there are good projects out there who do have the potential to progress is they are being funded well but there are really instances which the interest of people isnt there on which they do end up on failing inspite on having a good project. This is also my main concern or being seek it up first when i do decide to join or invest on an ICO. Next would be the experienced developers and next its roadmap, marketting strategy/partners and experiences.